ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 411 



{Case of the U. S., Appendix, vol. II, p. 489.) 



He is a man who lias bad large exi)erience. He details it but to save time, I will 

 not read it. I go to the bottom of the page: 



In 1887 I was master of the schooner Lottie Fairfield, sailing from San Francisco on 

 or about the 17th day of March, and worked northward to tlie Behring Sea, and cap- 

 tured 883 seals. I then entered the Eehring Sea about the 6th of July, cruising 

 there until the 29th day of August, and took 2,517 seals more, the whole catch beiug 

 3,400 for the year, 



I skip a few lines and read : 



In my captures off the coast between here and Sitka 90 per cent of my catch were 

 females, but otf the coast of Unimack I'ass there was a somewhat smaller percentage 

 of females, and nearly all the lemales were cows heavy with pup, and, in some 

 instances, the period of gestation was so near at hand that I have frequently taken 

 the live pup from the mother's womb. . . 



I never paid any particular attention to the exact number of or proportion of each 

 sex killed in the iiehriug Sea, but I do know that the larger portion of them were 

 females, and were mothers giving milk. I have never huuted within 15 miles of the 

 I'ribilotf Islands; but I have often killed seals in milk at distances of not less than 

 100 to 200 miles from these islands. From my knowledge and experience in the busi- 

 ness it is my conviction that within the last few years, since the sealers have become 

 so numerous in the Pacific and Behring Sea, that not more than one out of three is 

 secured. Our purpose and j)ractice was to take all the seals we could get, regardless 

 of their age or sex, without any discrimination whatever. 



These few lines following ought to have been i^rinted in different 

 type, this is the conclusion : 



The foregoing are samples of the many sworn declarations of men, having practi- 

 cal experience in, or knowledge of, pelagic sealing, which declarations, to the number 

 of over 150, will be found at pp. 429 to 447 and 451 to 466 of the Appendix to the 

 Argument of the Uuited States. 



Mr. Justice Harlan. — You say there, the Appendix to the Argument 

 of the United States. 



Mr. Coudert. — Yes; that is what we sometimes call the "Collated 

 Testimony". 



Now this High Tribunal has heard all the evidence which it is possi- 

 ble to furnish upon this subject — the evidence of Furriers, Sorters of 

 Furs, Pelagic Sealers, Officers of the United States Government, Offi- 

 cers of the British Government, Canadian Officials, and they all concur 

 upon this subject; and the most that can be said against the conten- 

 tion of the United States is, that when we insist that they are practi- 

 cally all female seals — that they run up to 85, 90, or as M. Grebiiitzky 

 says, 90 per cent — that we exaggerate; but it really is practically con- 

 ceded, and possibly may be in terms admitted, that the proportion is 

 very large indeed, and that not less than 75 per cent are females. 



As I said before and I repeat now, so far as our argument before this 

 High Tribunal is concerned, it makes very little difference to us whether 

 it is 75 per cent or 100 per cent, as some of these witnesses have said, 

 who have the intelligence to understand that their business can be only 

 temporary if this destruction proceeds. The whole stock is being rap- 

 idly depleted and exterminated. The fate of the southern seal which 

 is not a matter that we need argue, is already darkening upon the 

 horizon of the northern seal. There are no two rules and no two laws, 

 one for the north and one for the south. The laws are just the same, 

 and when you interfere with the law of nature, the punishment is 

 swift and certain. 



It is inexorable. You may violate the laws of man and hope to 

 escape through the errors of judges or the mistakes of juries. You 

 may perhaps violate the commandments of God with the hope that He 

 in His mercy will foi;giveyou; but nature is inexorable; she moves 

 with a lame foot sometimes, but always overtakes the man who perpe- 

 trates the wrong. She never fails and does not know how to fail. 



